Football News And Views

It’s that time of the year again folks. Deadline day where almost everyone is expected to sign someone last minute but that’s not always the case. On a quieter than usual deadline day here are all the transfers so far:

Sam Aiston [Northampton - Burton] Loan
Santiago Aloi [River Plate - Watford] Loan
Sone Aluko [Birmingham - Aberdeen] Loan
Mickael Antoine-Curier [FK Haugesund - Hibernian] Undisclosed
Anthony Basso [Auxerre - Hearts] Free
Roman Bednar [Hearts - West Brom] Loan
Marcus Bent [Charlton - Wigan] Loan
Habib Beye [Marseille - Newcastle] Undisclosed
Chris Birchall [Coventry - St Mirren] Loan
Lee Bradbury [Southend - Bournemouth] Free
Henri Camara [Wigan - West Ham] Loan
Jamal Campbell-Ryce [Southend - Barnsley] Undisclosed
Leon Clarke [Sheff Wed - Southend] Loan
Michael Coulson [Barnsley - Northwich] Loan
Curtis Davies [West Brom - Aston Villa] Loan
Lassana Diarra [Chelsea - Arsenal] Undisclosed
Paul Dickov [Man City - Crystal Palace] Loan
Papa Bouba Diop [Fulham - Portsmouth] Undisclosed
Jason Euell [Middlesbrough - Southampton] Free
Abdoulaye Faye [Bolton - Newcastle] Undisclosed
Amdy Faye [Charlton - Rangers] Loan
Marco Ferreira [Benfica - Leicester] Loan
Jaroslaw Fojut [Bolton - Luton] Loan
Caleb Folan [Wigan - Hull] £1m
Paul Gallagher [Blackburn - Preston] Loan
Michael Gardyne [Celtic - Morton] Free
Carl Gibbs [unattached - Woking] Non-contract
Andy Gooding [Coventry - Burton] Loan
Lewis Grabban [Crystal Palace - Motherwell] Loan
Izedin Harusha [unattached - Woking] Non-contract
Stephen Henderson [Bristol City - York] Loan
Ian Holmes [Matlock - Mansfield] Undisclosed
Evan Horwood [Sheff Utd - Gretna] Loan
Stephen Hughes [Leicester - Motherwell] Undisclosed
Paul Huntington [Newcastle - Leeds] Undisclosed
Alistair John [unattached - Stevenage]
Craig Jones [unattached - Hereford] Non-contract
Glen Johnson [Chelsea - Portsmouth] Undisclosed
Jemal Johnson [Wolves - Milton Keynes Dons] Undisclosed
Richard Keogh [Bristol City - Huddersfield] Loan
Dan Kirkup [Carlisle - Clyde] Loan
David Knight [Middlesbrough - Swansea] Free
Shefki Kuqi [Crystal Palace - Fulham] Loan
Paul Lawson [Celtic - Ross County] Free
Mikele Leigertwood [Sheff Utd - QPR] £900,000
Larrys Mabiala [Paris Saint-Germain - Plymouth] Loan
Stephen Maher [Yeovil - Dorchester] Loan
Zibi Malkowski [Hibernian - Inverness CT] Loan
David Martot [Le Havre - Brighton] Loan
Clark Masters [Brentford - Welling] Loan
Marvin McCoy [unattached - Hereford]
David McGoldrick [Southampton - Port Vale] Loan
Jon-Paul McGovern [MK Dons - Swindon] Undisclosed
Borja Oubina Melendez [Celta Vigo - Birmingham] Loan
Kenny Miller [Celtic - Derby] Undisclosed
Danny Mills [Man City - Charlton] Loan
Danny Murphy [Tottenham - Fulham] Loan
Christian Nade [Sheff Utd - Hearts] Undisclosed
Jason Norville [unattached - Barnet] Non-contract
George O’Callaghan [Ipswich - Brighton] Loan
Gary O’Neil [Portsmouth - Middlesbrough] Undisclosed
Eric Odhiambo [Leicester - Southend] Loan
Luke Oliver [Stevenage - Salisbury] Loan
Wilson Palacios [Olimpia - Birmingham] Loan
Demar Phillips [Waterhouse - Stoke] Undisclosed
David Proctor [Dundee Utd - Inverness CT] Free
Reuben Reid [Plymouth - Wycombe] Loan
Ally Ridgers [Inverness CT - Elgin City] Loan
Adam Rooney [Stoke - Chesterfield] Loan
Liam Rosenior [Fulham - Reading] Undisclosed
Alex Russell [Bristol City - Northampton] Loan
Iain Russell [Brechin - Morton] Undisclosed
Moustapha Salifou [FC Wil - Aston Villa] Undisclosed
Andy Sandell [Bristol Rovers - Salisbury] Free
Georges Santos [unattached - Chesterfield] Non-contract
Tyron Sealey [Stevenage - Hitchin] Loan
Seol Ki-Hyeon [Reading - Fulham] Undisclosed
Ricky Shakes [unattached - Brentford]
Jon Shaw [Burton - Halifax] Loan
Mohamed Shawky [Ahly - Middlesbrough] £650,000
Jay Simpson [Arsenal - Millwall] Loan
Nolberto Solano [Newcastle - West Ham] Undisclosed
Jonathan Smith [unattached - Aberdeen]
Sam Sodje [Reading - Charlton] Loan
Dejan Stefanovic [Portsmouth - Fulham] £1m
Zander Sutherland [Inverness CT - Elgin City] Loan
Elias Wagner [Hibernian - Hearts] Free
Callum Warburton [Rochdale - Kendal] Loan
Sean Webb [Ross County - Accrington] Free
Andy Welsh [Toronto - Blackpool] Free
Harry Worley [Chelsea - Carlisle] Loan
James Younghusband [unattached - Woking]

There was mixed fortunes for the British clubs in the champions league draw. In my opinion the English clubs have all got a very good draw. Considering that all 4 English clubs were top seeds there was good chance of them all getting good draws. Liverpool have a very nice group with Porto, Marseille and Besiktas and Arsenal also have a good groupd with Seville or AEK, Steau Bucharest and Slavia Prague.It is another story for the scottish clubs though. Celtic have AC Milan in their group whilst Rangers have Lyon and Barcelona. Chelsa and Manchester Utd have slightly tougher groups with Chelsea facing Valencia Schalke 04 and Rosenborg and Manchester Utd facing Roma Sporting Lisbon and Dynamo Kiev. I still think both clubs are good enough to top these groups though. Below is the full draw with the British clubs in bold.

Group A
LIVERPOOL
Porto
Marseille
Besiktas
Group B
CHELSEA
Valencia
Schalke 04
Rosenborg
Group C
REAL MADRID
Werder Bremen
Lazio
Olympiakos
Group D
AC MILAN
Benfica
Celtic
Shakhtar Donetsk
Group E
BARCELONA
Lyon
Stuttgart
Rangers
Group F
MANCHESTER UNITED
Roma
Sporting Lisbon
Dynamo Kiev
Group G
INTER MILAN
PSV Eindhoven
CSKA Moscow
Fenerbahce
Group H
ARSENAL
Sevilla/AEK Athens
Steau Bucharest
Slavia Prague

Yakubu has finally moved to Everton for £11.25m after being granted a work permit. He has moved from Middlesbrough who’s striking options now look very thin indeed. Remember last year when they had Viduka and Yakubu? They got plenty of goals for Boro who still only finished 12th in the table. This season I think 12th will be a great achievement for the club unless they spend this £11.25m wisely. Another striker is certainly a must now for Boro. They have bought in Aliadiere and Tuncay but neither of them have proved themselves at this level yet. They also have Mido who played quite well recently for them. I still think one more striker is needed. Southgate will have to act quick to find a replacement and he may have to look to the continent to find a decent striker. Samaras has been linked to the club from Man City. I think he would be a good signing for the club and shouldn’t cost more than £5m. He has shown signs of his class at City but his chances are limited now and he could well find his form again at Boro. I know a few Boro fans would not like to see him but believe me is better than Aliadiere.

Boro also could do with a couple more midfielders and maybe we will see a couple more players go there before Friday’s deadline. Let’s just hope Southgate spends wisely. He now has a lot of cash to play with.

As for Everton I think they might have wrapped up their summer spending now. Stephen Appiah has been linked to them so maybe he will come to the club too. He is a great player and Everton will certainly be a force this season. They are already a very good team and I think they will get 5th this season and the signing of Yakubu only makes that prediction more accurate.

Former West Ham and Birmingham City player Stan Lazaridis has been banned from football for 12 months for failing a drugs test. Fair enough you might say but this is very harsh as the drug he was testing positive for was finasteride, a drug he was using to prevent hair loss. Does this drug have any effect on his performance. Sure he might not look like Jaap Stam but having a full head of hair is hardly going to turn him into Cristiano Ronaldo overnight. It’s quite harsh for the guy who just wants to look good on the pitch in front of the cameras and have a career on head and shoulders adverts after his footballing career is over. At 35 he will be 36 when his ban is over. There is no reason why shouldn’t do a Solsjaer and retire now. Maybe after this ban is lifted we will see him playing football league or non league football back in this country.

Billericay Town 1-1 Chelmsford City 

Billericay and Chelmsford fought out a typically tense local derby on Monday, with two penalties the only goals as both keepers impressed on the rare occasions that they were tested. The first half was a poor display which was played mostly in the middle of the park and Chelmsford did have slightly the better chances.

Chelmsford came out with plenty of purpose after the break and had already forced a series of corners when the linesman gave Chelmsford a penalty just 2 minutes after suffering a barrage of insults from the city faithful when coming to check the goal nets at the start of the 2nd half for his poor first half performance. Darren Blewitt was the offender as he held Kezie Ibe and conceded a penalty. Stuart Ainsley duly stepped up to score from the spot his 2nd penalty in 2 games.

The lead didn’t last to long though as minutes later Billericay were awarded a spot kick of their own when Jamie Dormer burst into the area only to be tripped by Ben Sedgemore. Lee Hodges saw his spot kick well saved by Danny Gay, but again the linesman stepped into the action and flagged to say he had come off his line before Hodges kicked the ball. For the re-take Billericay switched to Joe Flack who made no mistake.

The penalties sparked the game into life, and both sides had chances with Billy McMahon making a good save from a Lee Protheroe free kick and a Kezie Ibe header, whilst at the other end Danny Gay made an equally important save to tip a Flack header over the bar.

All in all its a good point for city who struggled in Essex Derby’s away from home so 8 pts from 4 games ain’t a bad start for the clarets.

There has been a lot of speculation linking El-Hadji Diouf and Anelka away from The Reebok Stadium due to Bolton’s poor start this season but after their 3-0 triumph over Reading on Saturday where Diouf threw his shirt into the crowd. Diouf has spoken out about his future saying he is going to stay at Bolton because everybody ‘loves’ him. The Senegal international went on to say.

“When I was at Liverpool, everybody thought English football was not for me. But here, people respect me and I have shown my quality. I want to give back to the club, not leave. I’ve read I want to go but what I’ve actually said is that if a big club comes in and the club are happy and I am happy, I move.

“But if this club is not happy and I’m not happy about the move, then I want to stay. I have everything here with the fans - I am playing good football and everybody loves me. Throwing my shirt into the crowd meant nothing. Before the game, people asked me for my shirt. I want to make them happy by giving away my shirt or my boots.
I think it was one of the best games I’ve had for this club but more important than me is this football club.”

I can say with great confidence that although he may be loved at Bolton he is not loved anywhere else. I wouldn’t say he is hated but his antics over the last few seasons have made him as disliked as Robbie Savage on a good day. There is no doubt that on his day he has the ability and he has linked up well on occasions with Anelka, who’s future is still undecided, but there is a side to Diouf’s game that we would all like to see gone. Even Bolton fans do not love him for that.

There is sad news from the opening weekend in Spain. Seville and Spain star Antonio Puerta suffered a heart attack during Sevilles first game of the season which ended with a 4-0 win over Gatafe. The 22-year-old suffered problems midway through the first-half of the match. Medics prevented Puerta from swallowing his tongue, but he collapsed again after going off when he was in the changing rooms and was given cardiac resuscitation before going to hospital where he is being kept in intensive care. There is not much news on his condition but it is believed that the doctors are becoming more and more optimistic which is a good sign. I hope he has a full recovery and will be back playing at some point. It was nice to see that Seville coach Juande Ramos didn’t want to speak about the game after it had finished to the media and rightly so. After something like this happening to one of his players he showed good sportsmanship by showing up to the media after the match but then stating that he was only interested in the players condition and not the match itself.

“I don’t have the mind to speak now. The reason I am here is because we are all professionals, but I have no desire to talk of the game or anything. I would like to see the player. The game does not have any importance compared with the health of a player.”

Edit: Puerta died on the 28th August 2007. His passing is a sad loss for Spanish and world football. We offer our condolences to his family and friends.

England U21 1 - 1 Romania U21

With the main England team playing tomorrow it the under 21 team who take the spotlight tonight against Romania under 21s in front of 18,000 fans at Ashton Gate in Bristol. It was England who took the lead when Matt Derbyshire scored after latching on to Agbonlahor’s pass though some may suggest that the young Villa striker was going for goal himself. The Romanians equalised when Onuoha looked to handball just outside the area though replays suggested he was pushed first and handballed on his way down. The resulting freekick hit the bar and bounced down onto the backside of a diving Joe Hart and bounced over the line. England had a chance to go back in the lead when Agbonlahor sent in a great ball to Kightly who was all on his own but he decided to head the ball to Derbyshire instead of going for goal himself. His header went behind Derbyshire and the ball was cleared. If he had taken it on his own he would have scored. A minute later Michael Johnson sent a long range curling shot just over. Mark Noble, who played great on the night, blasted a free kick just wide.

England rang the changes at half time with Mancienne, Adam Johnson and Ben Alnwick coming on for Gardner, Knightly and Hart. Theo Walcott who has causing all sorts of problems on the left wing in the first half was moved to the right hand side. Derbyshire should have got his second when he found himself one on one from a few yards out but he couldn’t direct his shot but he was also wrongly flagged for offside. Alnwick made a great save when Torje found himself through. England made more changes with Tom Huddlestone and Fabrice Muamba coming on for Michael Johnson and Mark Noble. Just moments later England came very close to scoring when Adam Johnson sent in a peach of a cross which Matt Derbyshire could only direct straight at the keeper. Walcott picked up the loose ball but couldn’t do nothing with it. He also appeared to be fouled twice in succession but didn’t go to ground straight away. He took a little knock but it was encouraging to see him back on his feet.

The game was quite a heated affair and the referee was very card happy and I wasn’t surprised when a red card was shown in the match. Cristian Scutaru who was already on a yellow was sent off after 71 minutes for a foul on Agbonlahor. There were not really any complaints about it but it’s not nice to see a red card in a friendly match. James Milner came on to equal the record number of England under 21 appearances when he came on for Matt Derbyshire and Luke Moore replaced his fellow Villa striker, Agbonlahor. The Romanians were let off near the end of the match when Tatarusanu’s goal kick went straight to Theo Walcott who slipped as he shot towards the empty net and narrowly missed. There was still time for the Romanian keeper to make another error when he punched straight to Huddlestone who’s miscontrol made the ball fall to Onuoha who’s shot suggests why he is a defender and not a striker. England were very unlucky to only draw this game but the result is meaningless compared to the performance which was very promising for England.

Elsewhere there were wins for Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland Under 21 teams against Finland, Sweden and Czech Republic Under 21 teams respectively and the Republic or Ireland U21s drew 2-2 with Germany U21s

Referee Rob Styles has been dropped from officiating next weekend in the Premiership due to his errors in the match between Liverpool and Chelsea that ended in a 1-1 draw. During the match he gave Chelsea a controversial spot kick and also appeared to give Essien two yellow cards without producing a red. Malouda appeared to go down in the box from a Steve Finnan tackle but replays show that there was clearly no contact made at all. This bad decision cost Liverpool the 3 points.

Also losing out on points, or a point in this case were Fulham who had a goal disallowed in the 90th minute against Middlesbrough when David Healys shot crossed the line but the referee’s assistant said it hadn’t. He has also been dropped from next weekends fixtures.

I am sure I speak for a lot of people when I say these are very good moves for the organisation in charge of referees. They should be punished for their mistakes but you can’t help feel that simple goal line technology and video replays would cut out mistakes from the game completely.

Margate 1-1 Chelmsford City

Ricky Holmes came of the bench at Hartsdown Park to rescue an opening day point for the highly fancied Chelmsford City. I was surprised when I found out he wasn’t starting as I rate him as the best player in non league football but his introduction with 30 mins left changed the game as his pace and directness left the Gates defence tied in knots.

City handed competitive debuts to Danny Gay, Lee Protheroe, Andy Duncan, Aidan Collins, Ben Sedgemore, Bertie Brayley and John Keeling but it was the home side who had struggled with financial problems in the close season who made the brighter start on a beach of a pitch with very strong winds which is why Player-Manager Robin Trott tried a cheeky lob early-on to try and catch new ‘keeper Danny Gay off his line but the former Heybridge Swifts man was equal to it. Shortly afterwards, Jimmy Jackson forced Gay into a parry which resulted in a scramble in the goalmouth but nothing came of it.

Chelmsford’s best chance of the half fell to center back Aiden Collins who turned on the edge of the box but his shot deflected off of a defender and went wide. Margate should then really have been down to 10 men when Steve McKimm tangled with former team mate Brayley having just been recently booked but the ref turned a blind eye.

The first half was a typical first game of season affair with both sides feeling each other other out and it wasn’t the best spectacle with the best action coming when a kids football bounced onto the pitch so the ref had to run about 60 yards to remove it as it was the otherside of the half to were the linesman on that side was.

Immediately after half time the home team went close when Jackson thumped a drive onto the post and forcing it to bounce agonisingly across the face of goal. But the Clarets returned the favour eight minutes later, this time Protheroe holding his head as his free-kick whacked the crossbar.

Margate then took the lead when James Haworth appeared to be pulled down for a possible penalty but, in the resulting confusion, defender Luke Coleman found the net with the loose ball. After this it was all Chelmsford as the Clarets pushed for an equaliser with Ricky Holmes at the heart of every City attack and their reward came 5 minutes from time when the ball fell kindly for Holmes, who drilled low and hard from the edge of the area to rescue a point.

 After the game City manager had this to say:

 “We should never have conceded in the first place. but not many teams will come to Margate and take away three points so, on this occasion, we’ll settle for one.”

I was very impressed with some of the debutantes particularly Danny Gay who showed a safe pair of hands and he claimed any balls in the air. Lee Protheroe dead ball abilities really impressed me not only did he hit the bar with a free kick outside the area but all off his corners were whipped in with purpose and all threatened. Andy Duncan and Aidan Collins were also commanding at the back and dealt with everything that came their way. I was less impressed with Bertie Brayley and John Keeling but its still very early days and I wont judge them on one game on a difficult pitch.